Obama's Senate allies eye key health care victory

President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate strove yesterday to lock down support to prevail in a landmark first test vote on his top domestic priority, remaking the US health care system.

Adding to their confidence, a wavering Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, said he would vote with his party today but warned he might side with Republicans in subsequent fights.

"We are not assuming a thing. We are working hard to bring all Democrats together for the 60 votes necessary to proceed to this historic debate," Senator Dick Durbin, the party's Senate vote counter, told reporters.

Democrats were increasingly confident they would win a procedural vote a day later on what would be the most sweeping overhaul of its kind in four decades, extending health care coverage to an estimated 31 million Americans at a price tag of about $848 billion through 2019.

Democrats need the 60 votes to override any delaying tactics from Republicans and approve a resolution that would formally start the debate - a hurdle shaping up as the legislation's biggest test to date.

But Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was already pursuing a long-term strategy to win the broader battle by courting a handful of swing-vote, centrist lawmakers to vote in favour of the overhaul itself.

After next week's Thanksgiving holiday break, Mr Reid will speak to individual senators to "make sure they each have some peace of mind about what the Bill does and can support it, and if they have a concern, address it," said Senator Durbin.

With the 100-seat Senate's 40 Republicans seemingly united against the overhaul, vote counters focused on three centrist Democrats - Senator Nelson, Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, whose vote was perhaps most in doubt because she faces a tough re-election campaign in 2010.

The support of Senator Joseph Lieberman, an independent who often votes with Democrats, was also in doubt for the final Bill.

Republicans stepped up their campaign against the legislation, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell denouncing "a trillion-dollar experiment in government-run health care that raises premiums, raises taxes and cuts Medicare," which covers the elderly.

"We've now had less than 48 hours to look through this 2,074-page bureaucratic nightmare," he added.

But Mr Durbin shot back that "the Republican health-care reform Bill is zero pages long, because it provides zero relief for the American people and the problems they face with health care today." The House of Representatives approved its own trillion-dollar version of the measure on November 7, squeaking through on a 220-215 margin only after toughening restrictions on federal funds subsidizing abortions.